By Michael Ryland, President of GAIL, Asia Pacific Board Member

Impact law – focusing on the practical

This is the time of the GAIL year when everything gets fully into swing – when the new Regional Boards meet and map out their priorities and the action plans are put into place.

The Regional Boards are where Impact law takes practical form.  Where GAIL’s Projects improve the legal tools available to help generate positive outcomes.  Where our Events spread practical experiences and knowhow across the network so that learnings can be applied both within and across the regions.  Where our engagement with our Impact Partners offers unparalleled insights into what works and how the practice of Impact law can be developed further.

GAIL Mexico Summit

Much of this work looks forward to debate and discussion at the Summit.  For many projects the Summit is the opportunity to launch and showcase the findings and the ideas for reform.

The Summit is the high point of the GAIL year.  It is the best opportunity to meet in person colleagues from within and across the regions who share the focus on Impact law.  Colleagues you may have been working with online for many months but not yet met.  And many colleagues newly met whose backgrounds, experience and aspirations are as diverse as the GAIL regions.

This year the GAIL Summit will be in Mexico City on 14/15 October 2025.  Mark it in your diaries and look out for the early bird registration form. 

It is an exciting milestone for GAIL!  For the first time we will be taking the Summit to the southern hemisphere.  It will, as always, be a global Summit and this year it will have the added spark of a Latin American flavour.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Impact law in practice

I want to return to the theme of Impact law in practice.  

Impact law is a practical endeavour.  When you have an Impact law lens, you notice examples all around you.  Remember them because they are the beacons, the guideposts to what Impact law is and why it is important.

Two examples came across my desk recently that illustrate this.  In both cases the lawyers working on them did not think of themselves as Impact lawyers but the work they did falls squarely within the field.

Save the Children Nandi Project

The first is the Nature-based Solutions project that Save the Children announced in February to restore soil health and water retention in the Mau Forest watershed in Kenya (article here).

This $5M initiative is being delivered by Save the Children Global Ventures and carbon project developer Carbon Neutral.  It will focus on planting indigenous trees and restoring degraded habitats in tea-growing parts of the Nandi region, an area that has been heavily deforested.  In turn, this will support improved crop yields for local farmers, increase the region’s resilience to climate change, and provide a boost for local wildlife.

It provides a scalable solution for funding long-term climate action, and it is an example of “child-lens investing”, which prioritises delivering impacts for children and future generations, helping to ensure longevity of outcomes.

The Impact law angle is that it involved legal support from 8 different law firms – facilitated by industry forum Legal Charter 1.5 – developing the legal elements needed to make it work. 

We are arranging a GAIL members webinar with Save the Children in the next couple of months to explain this initiative in more detail – look out for the email with the webinar details.

Lismore floods relief

The second example relates to the floods in Lismore, Australia in 2022.  On February 28, the biggest flood in modern Australian history inundated Lismore, and the rest of the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales. Further flooding occurred in March.  Four people perished, 3,000 homes in Lismore were affected, and 10,000 people were left homeless across the Northern Rivers.

The first responders from a legal perspective were Legal Aid NSW, the Mid North Coast Legal Centre and the Financial Rights Legal Centre. 

There were a multiplicity of tenancy, housing, health, employment and related issues they addressed. 

One particular area of work was helping clients get access to disaster relief grants.  One of their learnings was the need for systemic advocacy to overcome inequities and to clear away administrative delays and blockages. 

For example, in that area part of the population lives permanently in caravan parks.  But they were not included in the definition of “homeowner” for the flood relief grant.  The Northern Rivers lawyers argued successfully for that definition to be changed.  It was a short, sharp change that did not need law reform but did need an Impact lens, advocacy and a sharing of knowhow across the legal community.

Focus on the practical drivers

These two examples illustrate that the value of Impact law and an Impact lens is in its practical effect, and that there is a practical need.

There is much political debate in some (not all) GAIL regions disputing and shifting away from Climate objectives, the UN SDGs and other benchmarks for Impact law and practice. 

Irrespective of the changes in political landscape, the practical need is not going away and the sustainability mechanisms that have been put in place have their own drivers.  Professional investors remain focussed on underlying trends that affect portfolios such as the energy transition, demographic changes and the long term need for sustainable economic growth.

GAIL’s task is to remain focussed on those practical needs and on those underlying drivers. Impact law and practice has never been more important.  

Michael Ryland